Joe Biden issued four executive orders on Tuesday that set in motion his promises to tackle the scourge of racism. He's siccing the entire federal government on the problem.
“We need to open the promise of America to every American. And that means we need to make the issue of racial equity not just an issue for any one department of government. It has to be the business of the whole of government,” Biden said.
Here's what Tuesday's orders included:
An order about the Fair Housing act directs the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to “examine the effects of the previous Administration’s regulatory actions that undermined fair housing policies and laws." It also reintroduces an Obama-era revision to the 1968 Fair Housing Act that Trump nixed. Biden's directive has more teeth: It requires jurisdictions that get federal funding have to analyze patterns of housing discrimination and present a plan to address any such patterns that they find.
Another order aims to tamp down attacks on Asians by Americans who, like Trump, think of COVID-19 as "the China virus." The rule condemns and combats "racism, xenophobia and intolerance against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States."
There is an order that calls for phasing out "for-profit," privately run prisons, at least for federal prisoners. Right now, 16 percent of federal prisoners are in facilities run by private companies. “To decrease incarceration levels, we must reduce profit-based incentives to incarcerate....” Biden wrote in the order.
The fourth order reaffirms the federal government's "commitment to tribal sovereignty and consultation," as National Public Radio put it. The order tackles situations like the Dakota Access Pipeline, whose stakeholders played hardball against Lakota people protesting the use of their land for the project.
Biden has tasked the Domestic Policy Council to follow up on these orders, and on several orders Biden signed last week. Heading that Council is Susan Rice, a capable pinch-hitter who has been UN Ambassador and National Security Adviser.
Not one of these four executive orders have become legislation yet. If they aren't, they could be overturned in a day, just as many of Trump's have been since the inauguration. Besides, civil rights leaders who helped turn out the vote for Biden want to see some solid progress passed during the next four years.
Biden made it clear on Tuesday that he wants to see the “John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act” on his desk, and soon. That bill was passed in the House last year but was kept off the Senate floor by the formidable GOP majority leader Mitch McConnell. Also passed by the House but sidelined in the Senate were the “George Floyd Justice in Policing Act” and the “For the People Act.”
Which of these executive orders should be put into legislation first? Is any one of these executive orders worth tanking the filibuster, if that's what it takes to put it into law?
Are there other civil rights measures that you want addressed in the first weeks of the Biden administration?
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/535999-5-things-to-know-about-bidens-racial-equity-executive-orders?fbclid=IwAR13RIjENfn_Wfd2EUNrY_kmdxGavqgBX6p3j0mkadByF38OCnO6VGxxVbw&rl=1
